Pilgrimage
by Mapped
Summary: The story of one quarian's pilgrimage. He will discover what dangerous things happen outside the migrant fleet
1. Chapter 1

As Leeto'fema nar Leema rested his head on his bed he began to think, what kinds of things would he encounter when he leaves the fleet? How long would he be gone? What would he do? And more importantly, what would he offer as a gift to his chosen ship? He shifted onto his back and started to count the ceiling panels, when he realised that there was the same amount as yesterday he smiled to himself. Not that anyone would have seen it as he, along with every other quarian on the _Leema_, was wearing his enviro-suit. His senses slowly faded until he could barely keep his eyes open, he slept well that night.

By the time he awoke there were already quarians bustling about the deck, with them came the unrecognisable strings of chatter that filled the room. He grabbed his Omni-tool from the small table that sat up against one of the walls of his family's cubicle; he rolled the sleeping mat up and neatly placed it in the corner. Realising that his mother would have only just come back from her volunteer work on one of the live ships, and his father was up on the bridge navigating. He wondered if either of them was going to be at the docking bay to see him off. He knew his mother would be down on the trading deck looking for a spare canister for the portable stovetop that served as the family's main cooking tool.

Attaching his omni-tool to his forearm he took a deep breath, drew the curtain that covered the doorway and started making his way towards the docking bays, where Captain Ster'nal vas Leema would be waiting to see him off on his pilgrimage. The door to the elevator slid open, he let the two quarians disembark before he stepped inside and activated the lift, as always he looked out over the _Leema_'s trading deck, this time however was different, he would not be returning to this particular ship again. The door slid open and he made his way towards the docking bays, "Dock number 5" said the captain as Leeto replayed the words in his head; he rounded the corridor that connected the trading deck to the docks. It warmed his to see that his mother was there alongside the captain. Even though he couldn't see her face he knew she was smiling.

"Leeto", the captain began, "on behalf on my ship and crew I present you with this gift, it will help you along your pilgrimage." Leeto took the weapon from the captain's hands, "Thank you captain, I will uphold the good name of your ship" Leeto replied with a slight bow of his head. His mother then stepped forward and before she could say anything he embraced her, "I have something for you journey as well" she said as she handed Leeto a small package. "Don't open it until you are on the shuttle" she added. This stuck in Leeto's mind; he thought that it was a simple way of making him take the items with him.

He knew however that there would be a small sum of credits, as the quarians have no set economy there is little need for credits aboard the fleet it would be a simple task of looking for some on the trading deck. "Keelah sa lai" said his mother as he boarded the waiting shuttle, as soon as he was seated the door hissed shut and the docking clamps released. It dawned on him that he may never see any of his friends or family again. The shuttle left the _Leema_ and headed for the nearest space port. He started to think over how he would keep himself alive, the only food that would be remotely safe for him to eat would come from a turian store, and even then he wouldn't want to risk getting sick. First of all he needed to get enough credits to get a shop owner to order in food that would be safe for a quarian, without making him sick or course.

As Leeto sat in the passenger cabin of the small shuttle his visor was practically glued to the window, he had never seen much of what was beyond the flotilla, up until this point he had listened to the stories that were told by the quarians who had just returned from their pilgrimage, describing wonderful worlds and interesting cities. Despite having everything blanketed with the purple haze from his environmental suit, he took everything in as if his mind was a sponge in a bucket of water. The comm system crackled to life, "ETA one hour" said the voice and this gave Leeto a chance to see what his mother had given to him. He pulled the parcel from one of his pockets, un-wrapping it carefully as not to damage any of the items inside. What was revealed took him by surprise; a new mod for his omni-tool along with several hundred credits. The amount of time he had until his shuttle reached the turian spaceport was enough for him to integrate the new mods into his omni-tool, the cabin lit up with a faint orange glow as Leeto started adding the mods. Leeto jumped slightly when the intercom sprang to life, "ETA twenty minuets". He quickly finished up calibrating the new mods, he then realised that he had forgotten to transfer the credits over to his omni-tool, using this method was much quicker when it came to making purchases, not to mention safer. It didn't take long for the shuttle to drop from FTL flight and begin descending through the upper most layers of the planets atmosphere.

To the average commuter the planet would have looked like a greyish ball with the occasional icy patch but to a person like Leeto it was an amazing sight that took his breath away, not to mention filling his head with questions. As the craft made its way down through the atmosphere there came an incoming communication from the local space traffic enforcement, this to Leeto was not unexpected as most of the inhabited planets would send a ship to investigate the newcomer, and even the migrant fleet did it. "You are entering turian space", said a stern voice over the speakers, "identify yourself or divert your trajectory" as if by instinct the quarian pilot replied, "This is the quarian shuttle _Liemia _requesting permission to land", a short paused followed by the turian reply "you are cleared for landing, sending co-ordinates for the landing point" the communication clicked to notify the pilot that the co-ordinated were sent successfully. As the craft landed Leeto couldn't help but to stare in amazement at the turian architecture, he also noticed a small security detail waiting for their arrival, the guards seemed to be heavily armed but that didn't worry Leeto, 'as long as he didn't cause any commotion they should let him through' he thought as he clipped his shotgun to the small of his back. The weapon itself was turian in design and boasted numerous targeting mods along with various recoil dampers and cooling systems. The shuttle touched down with ease, the pilot opened the hatch and gave his best wishes to Leeto, and he added the words "keelah sa lai" as Leeto disembarked the craft.

No sooner as he had left the craft, it started its journey back to the flotilla. Leeto walked up to the three turians, he easily made out that two were guards and the other was a possible officer whose job was to welcome newcomers. "I will have to ask you to surrender any weapons you may be carrying and come with us" said the important looking turian. Leeto reluctantly handed one of the guards his shotgun, "do I get it back when I leave?" questioned the quarian with a hint of concern. The turian let out a short laugh, "yes, it will be returned to you on your departure, now will you follow us". The three turians led Leeto into a flat grey building near the gate of space port; he was trying to figure out what was going on; if it was a regular security check or something different. He was led into a large room that had several people, a single turian behind a desk, another two guards and a short line consisting of a human, batarian and a rough looking turian. "Wait in line" said the escort handing him a card with what looked like a serial number "that's for reclaiming your gun" he said with a tired tone; the officer entered a separate room whilst the two armed guards resumed their positions outside the building. Over the next half hour Leeto fidgeted with his fingers, "next" grunted the seated officer, "fill this page out", he gestured towards a computer terminal. Leeto spent the next five minuets reading over regulations and occasionally answering the odd question. "I think I'm done" Leeto said questionably.

The turian grunted and punched a few things into his terminal, "go in there, Rontis wants to see you" he grumbled as he jabbed his finger in the direction of the side office.

Leeto knocked on the door and entered when it slid open. Rontis turned used his head to gesture a seat opposite him, "What exactly do you plan to do here on Soros?" he said in way of greeting, "I was planning to stay for a week or so until I figure out where I would go next" Leeto said trying to look confident. In his mind he realised this process didn't happen to regular travellers, he knew it was only because he was a quarian and by turian standards quarians are low-life scavengers that wouldn't contribute to any part of society. He was snapped out of his thoughts when Rontis spoke again, "What exactly do you mean by 'where you would go next'?" this took Leeto longer to answer than he expected, but eventually he spoke "I am on my pilgrimage, thi-"Rontis raised his hand to silence him. "I didn't ask for that," he said obviously annoyed by the quarian, "you are obviously quarian passing through here, the only way a district like this can flourish is with incoming and outgoing traffic, with all you quarians coming and going without contributing is bringing this place down!" Leeto was quite taken back by these words but he eventually managed to speak, "you can't just pin all your problems on me," the pride of his people showing in his voice. Rontis pushed a button on the terminal in front of him and a guard entered. "Good thing we have alternate ways of getting the desired flow" said the turian, there was laughter in his voice, not the good natured laughing but the twisted laughter or a criminal. "That's it! You're a criminal!" Rontis laughed again, "Put him with the others, the buyers will be here tomorrow."


	2. Chapter 2

Leeto was shoved through a door on the other side of the office, inside was what looked like a meeting room, and in the centre was a large table which was surrounded by chairs. He was pushed through a second door and into a cell. For the first time in his life he was truly scared.

"Get in there," growled one of the guards, "nothing but scavengers" added the other. The room Leeto was now in looked more like a closet than anything else, possibly converted to a makeshift prison. He feebly moved across the room, he sat at the end of a bench built into the wall and slowly took in his surroundings. The bench stretched across the back wall, he saw another quarian, a male, glancing around nervously and muttering to himself, Leeto couldn't here what he was saying but it hardly mattered. The other quarian in the cell moved to his side and tried to comfort him, it wasn't working. A thought popped into Leeto's head, 'he wasn't scared he was sick', as the thought ran around his head he noticed that the female was looking up and down the arm of the obviously distort quarian; the puncture must be on his arm. Before he could process the scenario any further a voice broke out from across the cell.

"Hey! He needs medicine, he's sick" the voice had come from the female, "when you pushed us in here you punctured his suit!" This time it was the guard who spoke, "what of it?" he said with a laugh, "you seem to be well equipped to deal with that, so why don't you do it" the two guards laughed and resumed their convocation. "You bosh'tet," she spat, "Sit down and shut up!" the second guard snarled. "He needs help!" she said, not backing down. The larger guard un-holstered his pistol and aimed it at the woman. The infected quarians muttering became louder and more frightened, "shut up!" yelled the guard, the two words seemed to sink into the man because he lowered his voice to a near inaudible mutter. Leeto moved closer to the man and did his best to comfort him, quarians seemed to look out for other, and since they were exiled from their home world this common bond seemed to grow.

"It's ok" Leeto said as soothingly as possible. The other looked up and blinked wildly.

"Th-thank you, I haven't been able to control myself since I got infected", he slowly brought up his arm to show Leeto. Through the tear in his suit he could se scabs and festering pieces of skin. The arm was quickly pulled away from Leeto as the infected quarian stared at the brave woman arguing with the guards. "Let him out! He is sick, he could die!" She yelled, the guard's eyes narrowed, he was obviously annoyed. He hit the door control and entered the cell. The quarian fell with a dull thud, she groaned as she tried to get back onto her feet only to have the turians foot pushing her back down, "get o-off of me!" she spat. The guard passed a smile to his colleague then applied even more force onto the quarian. He levelled his pistol with her visor and cocked the weapon; before Leeto could even blink the male he was sitting with jumped up and threw himself against the guard, knocking him off balance. "What the-"muttered the other guard but he was cut off as the female charged him, the force of the blow knocked him over. Leeto sat in bewilderment for a few seconds as he took in the scene before him, he quickly shook his head and took himself into the feud. The turian who had been hit by surprise lifted the quarian off him and threw her to the side, as he reached down for his pistol Leeto brought his boot down as hard as he could on the turians hand, "gahh! You little-"he growled, Leeto had brought his foot around and kicked the turian in the jaw, knocking him out cold. 'Never knew I would actually be able to use my training' he thought to himself. "Are you coming?" the words snapped Leeto's mind back to the current time. The two other captives were eagerly ushering him over to the open cell door. The female was around the same height as Leeto, it didn't take him by surprise as he knew that nearly every quarian on the flotilla were around the same height and build. "Co-come on" said the ill quarian, "please, we have to go". No doubt that he wanted to get as far away as possible from the building and their captors.

"I-I need to find my things" said Leeto in a fragile voice. The female nodded and lead them to a small storage cabinet on the opposite side of the room, the contents looked to be the belongings of many people, and most of the stuff could easily be recognised as quarian.

"b-but…" he trailed off as he saw the other two digging through the pile of different objects, some were weapons and some things looked like personal items. It only took a couple of minuets for them all to find their personal items. Leeto felt relieved that he had his shotgun back; he would have been devastated if it was to be lost or stolen especially since the captain had put all the effort into a single item.

The three quarians had made it back to the meeting room that Leeto had seen when he was first brought through the building. "We will have to take Rontis by surprise or else we may not be able to get past him." Whispered the female, the two me nodded.

The trio of quarians took up positions around the door, Leeto was standing to the right of the doorway with is shotgun drawn; he would have to rely mostly on the guns various targeting systems because he wouldn't have a direct shot. Hopefully they wouldn't have to shoot at all; maybe Rontis was out at lunch. Sadly Leeto was mistaken.

Rontis instinctively hit the floor and scurried under his desk. The three assailants entered with their weapons drawn. "Your going to open the gates and let us out" said a female voice; Rontis quickly recognised it, quarians! "Haha, you really expect me to simply let my investments go do you?" he jested. Knowing the identities of the attackers made it easy for Rontis to stand and face them. "Get back on the floor!" the woman said aggressively, the turian remained standing, he didn't have any shields but neither did his attackers, if only he could get the pistol from his desk drawer, "get down, now!" she ordered. "Or what?" said Rontis with a laugh, "you going to shoot me?" A second later there was a cluster of smoking holes in the ceiling, the female had let off a warning shot, Rontis dropped back down to his knees. The quarian lowered her weapon and aimed it at the turians head, his eyes widened, "n-no Leyla", it was the sick quarian who spoke, "leave him, we have to get o-out of here." The turian looked pleadingly at the woman. Leyla lowered her shotgun and strolled past Rontis to open the gates herself, she waved here omni-tool over the console, and it flashed green indicating that the gates were now open. "quickly," she said," no doubt guards are wondering what the noise was." She ushered the two men over to the door and peered out, the room was relatively empty, only a single guard and an unarmed man were in there. The quarians would have no trouble over powering the guard. The three of them burst out of the doorway and quickly persuaded the guard to put down his riffle. "We have a rover outside" Leyla said as the quarians ran through the remaining hallways. They burst out into the open air, the bright sunlight shocking Leeto's eyes, he stumbled after the other two as his eyes readapted to the brightness. "H-here it is" stuttered the sick male, the rover itself was it pretty bad condition, 'but then again any vehicles that were owned by quarians were' Leeto thought. They all clambered into the rover; no sooner than Leeto had entered there were sprays of bullets pinging off the metal around him.

Leyla jumped into the driver's seat and started the engine, it began as a low buzzing sound but it rose to steady rumble. The female put her foot down and they were off, a guard tried to block the exit but he jumped out of the way when he realised he couldn't stop them, good choice. It didn't take them very long to leave the space port and enter the winding roads of the city, "w-where are we going?" said Leeto in a frail voice, whilst he was on the _Leema_ he had never been exposed to this much adrenaline. "We have a ship near the outskirts, were heading there" said Leyla.

Amongst all the escaping Leeto didn't realise that the sick quarian was staring at him, Leeto decided he would make the first move; "hello, im Leeto'fema nar Leema, I started my pilgrimage s few days ago", the man didn't seem to acknowledge his words; he simply continued to stare at Leeto. He quickly diverted his gaze when Leeto looked back; he was now staring at the floor between his feet. "m-my name is Keana'voya nar Rayya, i-i..." Keana trailed off, he was obviously sick, it was starting to show physically. He swayed uneasily then snapped his head up and started to quickly look around. Leeto moved to his side and rested his hand upon the shoulder of his neighbour. He instantly noticed that his arm had gotten worse, Leeto pulled his homemade medical kit from his shoulder bag, he had always been the most cautious of his friends and this time it payed off! From the small kit he pulled a piece of suit fabric, a bottle of antibacterial wash and a bandage, he asked Keana for his arm, the quarian raised it in an almost drunken fashion. "This might sting ok?" said Leeto in an apologetic voice, the other quarians head slowly nodded before it fell back to rest against the wall. 'He must be really, really sick' Leeto thought as he applied some of the antibacterial wash, the infection started to loose the reddish colour, to have it replaced by the natural skin tone. He hastily got to work applying the patch of material over the puncture, the entire procedure took less than half an hour, "we should get him to a clinic right away, it seems pretty bad" Leeto said. After a small jolt caused by the rough terrain Leyla replied, "Yeah, closest one from here is about 10 minuets", he nodded in reply. As Leeto packed what was left of his medical kit away the rover hit a bump in the road, this was enough to thrown Leeto and Keana out of their seats and onto the floor. Keana groaned as Leeto lifted his limp body back onto the seat.

It took slightly longer than anticipated to reach the medical clinic, by this time Keana had regained enough energy to walk (it was more of an awkward limp) inside. The office was empty save for a salarian who was furiously typing into a console. He seemed slightly shocked at the sight of three quarians standing in his office. His eyes narrowed as he inspected the wound, "seems to be minor infection, no major damage which is good, no trace of bullet which means it must have happened on accident" the words tumbled out faster than Leeto could process them. "There is a sterile room through here, it should stop any further infection" added the doctor as he led the three into a separate room.

A strange silence hung in the room, only broken by the occasional grunting of Keana. "There that should do in terms of repair" said the salarian, "he should be more alert in less than an hour, but he won't be 'fit for duty' for another few days." Leyla went into the front office to discus payment whilst Leeto sat next to the delusional quarian, Leeto did his best to comfort Keana, it was the least he could do seeing he had just undergone a stressful, and not to mention painful procedure, the antiseptic wouldn't of stung as much if quarian skin wasn't so sensitive, but there was nothing he could do about that. Leyla returned, along with the doctor, to tell them that they were all set to move on. "Remember, he will still be feeling a little light headed for another couple of days, until the medications wear off completely" said the doctor pointedly. Leyla replied with a curt nod before the three left the clinic and boarded the rover; it wasn't long before Keana started to regain control over his body, "wh-whu..." he mumbled as the vehicle pulled up near a small ship, the quarian female hopped out of the cabin and started to lower the loading ramp of the craft. The ship itself looked to be around 10 years old; it was a simple salarian design consisting of a tapered cone where the bridge sat at the front and the thrusters at the back. Leeto helped the still groggy Keana out of his seat and took him into the crew quarters, which like most quarian vessels was stripped down to an empty room and four cubicles were set up across the room. 'Even outside the flotilla every inch of space is saved' though Leeto as it brought back memories of the _Leema_.

Leyla had finished brining the rover into the cargo hold and was now sitting in the bridge, performing the pre-flight checks and setups. The comms crackled as Leyla spoke, "we may have to perform some evasive manoeuvres whilst on departure, and they could try to re capture us." The ship shook slightly as it lifted off the ground; Leeto grabbed hold of one of the wall panels for support, Keana however was not able to brace himself however he did manage to keep himself on the bedroll. Almost immediately after the quarian ship had left the port a heavily armed gunship appeared behind them. "Turn around or we will open fire" said a turian over the ships comms, Leyla seemed to be unfazed by the threat as she had just exited the planets atmosphere. It dawned to Leeto that the closest mass relay was at least half an hour away, by the looks of the ship it wouldn't be able to outfly a standard frigate let alone a state of the art gunship. "Oh dear, why did I have to go on my pilgrimage…" Leeto was muttering to himself, "I don't want to be sold into slavery I-I..." he was cut off by Keana's groan, the man had tried to either roll over or get up, whatever it was it didn't worked out. "This is your last warning, return to the port or you will be shot down." The turian had tried another threat, and still Leyla didn't surrender.

Leeto left Keana in his bed and ran towards the bridge, it was small but it was the same size as any small sized ships, it contained two chairs one of which Leyla was seated, along with all the various pieces of equipment needed to operate a ship. Leyla seemed to acknowledge his presence as he entered. "Is there anything I can do?" Leeto questioned, "Yes actually, there is," said the pilot, "go to engineering and redirect the secondary core line to the thrusters." Leeto nodded and ran back down the hall, engineering was down near the aft of the ship near the mass effect core, much to his annoyance the room was flooded with cables and spare parts stacked in small crates. It didn't take long to find what he was looking for, the secondary core line was set up in a similar way to many of the ships he had worked on in the fleet. The indicator light soon started to blink which meant the backup energy was being transferred to the primary thrusters. Leeto smiled as he finished downloading pieces of data to his omni-tool, quarians were always a technologically advanced race; after all, they created the geth. Sadly it all seemed to go downhill from there, but quarians still had a knack for ship repairs and electronics in general. 'maybe I should find some new innovative ways to upgrade some of the ships in the fleet'; he though as he wondered back to the bridge, he was shocked to see Keana out in the hallway a few meters in front of him. "Keana what are y-"he was cut short by the other quarian, "I-I am feeling better now, I want to see if I can help out" came the somewhat rushed response.

"Im heading up there as well, do you need any help?" Leeto said using his usual 'comforting' tone. "I should be good," said the other, "you can walk with me if you want…" he fumbled with his hands as he spoke. Leeto simply nodded and the two set off towards the front of the ship.

A sudden shake of the vessel was enough to send Leyla into panic, her hands whizzed over numerous controls as she tried to out run the gunship, it was nearly impossible her to do so unless a miracle occurred. "Keelah," she breathed as the new power modifications kicked in, "now where is that damn relay?" it wasn't long until it came into view, a huge structure made entirely from dark metal, similar to the citadel she though, in its centre was a pulsating orb of blue energy, surrounded by rotating rings. Leeto and Keana stepped into the cockpit, "wh-whats going on?" said Keana. The female was clearly shocked by seeing the sick man in the bridge. "Keana...Your up" she started, but quickly turned to the matter at hand, "seems we have a couple of our turian friends following us-"the ship rocked violently a second time. Leyla cursed under her breath, "one more direct hit and were done for." As far as Leeto knew the only weapons the ship had wouldn't even be able to take out the armour of the opposing gunship. "I'm going to try and slow them down with a couple of EMP charges" Leyla said as here hands darted across multiple screens.

The blast from the charges was enough to temporarily disable the turian vessel, weapons and all. As the relay began to pick up on the ship Leyla slumped back in her seat and let out a sigh of relief.


	3. Chapter 3

**Authors Note****: Sorry this one was a little late; I went over it a second time and separated the speech up, so it's not as 'blocky'. This is what 48 sleepless hours gets you.**

**Enjoy!**

Now that the ship had jumped into FTL flight, the three had time to sit down and introduce themselves properly. They all sat at the small table in the centre of the crew cabin,

"I am Leyla'yara vas Rayya, sorry for not introducing myself earlier" said the woman, starting the convocation.

"It's ok, we had a lot going on," replied Leeto, "im Leeto'fema nar Leema, I started my pilgrimage a couple of days ago."

Leyla nodded in return to his words, "this is Kea-"she stopped when Keana cut her off "I have already introduced myself, w-when we were in the rover." The female simply nodded again and said, "he is going to start his own pilgrimage soon as well, isn't that right?" The only acknowledgement to the question was a slow nod.

"Thank you again for agreeing to drop me off at the citadel, but now I should get some rest" said Leeto with a hint of exhaustion.

Keana stood quickly and nearly knocked Leeto off his seat, "I-im very sorry" said the man apologetically, "Keana, why don't you show Leeto his room, "said Leyla with a chuckle, "you seem like you want to get out of here in a hurry."

Keana immediately dropped his head to face the floor, "oh, I-im…sorry for-"he said in a mumble. Leeto smiled to himself and then added "its ok, come on, show me my room."

The two journeyed back through the small ship, passing engineering and the bathroom, there was a small decontamination pump out side, 'at least I have a change to get out of this suit and relax' Leeto thought as they rounded the last doorway and entered the ships quarters.

"This is my room" said Keana proudly as he held back the cloth that served as the door, it was slightly smaller than the rooms on most quarian vessels, mainly because there was much less space on this ship.

The cubicle itself had many of the standard items a quarian would have had; a bedroll in one corner, a computer terminal and a vid-screen set along the opposite wall, a small portable cooking stove and various other items clustered on a small shelf.

Keana dropped the cloth back in place and moved to the next cubicle, "you can use this one if you like, and it's next to mine." He said as he moved the curtain aside, it was much like Keana's own room minus the shelf full of books and papers.

"Thank you," said Leeto, "I'll be sure to drop in on you later" he chuckled as he dropped his pack and started to unroll the sleep roll.

It didn't take Leeto long to fall asleep, no wonder, he had been moving non-stop ever since he left the fleet. It felt good to relax his body and let the fatigue take over.

He never used to dream, but something must have sparked a thought in the back of his mind. He was with his family once more, his father and mother were there, and he was a child again; running up and down the corridors of the _Leema_ chasing his friends. He could remember eating fruit like foods without wearing his suit; everything seemed so much better back then.

He shot forward; he was now older, a couple of weeks from his pilgrimage. No, he mustn't dwell on the past, if he wanted to become a valued crewmember of a ship he would have to focus on his pilgrimage and bringing back something useful as a gift to one of the captains.

He woke suddenly, "wha-what…whoa" he shook his head, still dazed he sat up.

Keana's head popped over the top of the wall panel, which in itself brought a smile to his face, "are you ok?" Keana asked, seeming concerned.

"Ye-yes im fine, I-I guess I just ha…" Leeto stuttered, he the settled on "im fine."

Keana seemed confused but eventually nodded and returned back to his own cubicle.

Leeto realised he wouldn't be able to get back to sleep. For the first time on his journey he noticed that he stank, he even _felt_ dirty.

"Um Keana, is it ok if I use the shower?" Leeto said uncertainly, he heard a little chuckle from the next cubicle and then Keana's head reappeared over the wall, "yes, sure you can" he said, trying to hold back another burst of laughter.

"Keana, what have I told you about looking over the walls? Use the door, its much more polite" the familiar voice of Leyla filled the room.

"I-he asked…so-sorry" Keana murmured, he then reseeded back into his room.

"Leeto, come one, I'll show you the shower."

She led him past Keana and down the hall towards the bathroom, "you will have to wait a couple of minuets as the machine decontaminates you, but when that's done the room will be free of any contaminates."

Leeto bowed his head in thanks and watched Leyla walk back to the crew quarters.

He activated the pump and stepped inside the first chamber, a fine mist filled the small area, and followed by a sharp hiss, the indicator lit up showing he was able to enter the bathroom.

It wasn't overly spectacular but Leeto didn't care, it had a shower and that's all that mattered.

Leeto double checked the meter on the wall, still clean. He undid the clasps around his visor, the air escaping from his suit made a short hiss; he placed the visor on the bench and continued to strip off the rest of his enviro-suit.

The warm water fell onto Leeto's bare skin; he took a deep breath as he relaxed every muscle in his body. He knew that in a few minuets he would be confined to his enviro-suit once more so he tried to make the most of these precious moments.

He rubbed his neck, it must have been in an awkward position whilst he slept, and as he shut off the water he simply stood there and watched the remaining droplets run off his body. He let himself dry off naturally, he wanted to spend as much time outside his suit as he could, as he was drying he started to clean his suit and check it for any damage, apart from the scuffed shoulder pads it was all up to scratch.

Cleaning the suit was proving more difficult than Leeto had anticipated, it kept sliding out of his grip, in the end he settled with giving it rinse with some warm water. It only took him several minuets to get back into the suit and do the necessary tests, all clear, he hit the control for decontaminating the bathroom and left.

Keana ran strait into Leeto as he left the bathroom, "oh-I...are you ok?" questioned the other,

"Yes, im fine," laughed Leeto, "you always seem to be in a hurry to get somewhere, what's happening?"

Keana looked up from the ground and said "oh, umm I was just going to get something to eat, nutrient paste mainly" Leeto nodded, "you can come if you want."

Keana looked back at the floor as if he was embarrassed,

"I was just going to read up on some news reports, you know to help me on my way," said Leeto in his calm voice, "but a good meal would be nice."

Keana looked up instantly and said "you-you're leaving? I thought you were staying longer"

Leeto let out a quiet laugh, "im not leaving for another few days, if you pass near the citadel I'll get off there."

Keana nodded and the two walked towards the crew cabin, the familiar table greeted then as they entered,

"Im sorry but we can't hold enough stock to store much variety" Keana said as he opened the small store room,

"It's ok, I don't mind" Leeto replied as he took his seat around the table.

The two quarians conversed about life in the flotilla and all the things Leeto had done on his pilgrimage, well the only thing he had done involved Keana so there wasn't much in terms of new stories.

Leeto did however find out a lot about Keana, His parents were killed when he was younger, he also learned that Keana was taken in by Leyla and therefore became part of the small ships crew, which he found out was called the _Karee_.

At that point Leyla entered the small room and sat down on the spare seat,

"I see that Keana has filled you in on his life," she said with a chuckle, "there would be more aboard but most of them died from either protecting the ship or later from infection" she hung her head for a few seconds,

Leeto broke the silence "does that mean the _Karee_ is a scout ship for the _Rayya_?"

Keana looked towards Leyla as if seeking permission to answer, "Yes," Leyla said simply,

"we were sent out a few days ago, probably around when you started your pilgrimage, the captain as well as a few other crew members wanted certain items or upgrades for the ship," Leyla paused, but Keana kicked it,

"We got tricked by the turian and wound up in that cell."

Leeto nodded eager to here more of the story but nothing came.

Over the next couple of days the three quarians went about their work, Leyla constantly checking the flight plan and the ship status, Keana went to engineering every so often to re-calibrate the drive core and engines and Leeto, who felt like he was being lazy, cleaned the air filters in the ship and on the decontamination unit, as well as checking for new stories over the extranet.

One night Keana invited Leeto into his room and they chatted, played cards and Keana even showed him a couple of games he had stored in his vid-screen, which he seemed to be very proud of.

Leyla, after doing final checks of the ships systems, came into the crew quarters, which gave Leeto the chance he needed.

"Keana, I'll be back in a minuet." The other male simply looked up and nodded, then returned to his game.

"Leyla, if possible would we-_you_ be able to drop me off at the citadel? I have seen some news vids about a small battle fleet getting ready to mass on a pocket of geth resistance; I think it would be a good chance for me to gather some information on how the geth have advanced, technologically." Leeto questioned, hoping that she would agree,

"I think we can do that, we have to get back to the fleet anyway which is currently located in the same system as the citadel." She said whilst nodding,

Leeto smiled beneath his visor but only nodded before returning to Keana's room.

As he had left him, Keana was still playing a game through his screen,

"I should really get some rest, I will be leaving tomorrow afternoon," Leeto said with a quick yawn, "I will see you later."

Keana quickly turned off the game and stood up, "o-ok Leeto, please don't leave before you say goodbye."

The words, though childish, brought a smile to Leeto's face as he nodded and made his way back to his own room.

He didn't dream at all that night, but he did think about Keana, the amount of suffering the poor man had gone through, first his parents were killed by a ship malfunction, then he get relocated to a scout ship for the _Rayya_, how much more would he be able to endure? But he did have friends, the ship captain; Leyla and Leeto, he would also have been at least acquaintances with the other crew members. Leeto's thoughts started to melt away as he drifted deeper and deeper into unconsciousness.

He woke the next day feeling more refreshed than he usually did, Leyla was sitting in her cubicle watching her vid-screen, and she gave Leeto a nod when she saw that he was awake.

"You seem to be up late today" she laughed.

As if on queue a loud crashing noise came from inside Keana's cubicle, followed by the familiar voice of the other male,

"Keelah! Why does this shelf have to break _now?_"

Keana was sitting on the floor in his room, the content of his shelf was now covering the floor and a large pile sat in his lap.

"Oh...Leeto I-umm didn't mean to wake you" he said when he saw Leeto's head come around the doorway.

"It's ok, I was already awake" He said with grin on his face, though no one would be able to see it because of his visor.

"What are you doing in all that mess?" he asked with a giggle,

"I-I was sorting through my shelf, to see what items I don't need," the other male replied, "were heading back to the fleet now, I thought I would put some stuff on the _Rayya's_ trading deck."

Leeto nodded agreeing, he then added "looks like you need a new shelf too."

Keana let out a short laugh before Leeto came in and sat next to the troubled quarian, Keana swept the scattered content of his shelf away so Leeto would have space to sit. Leyla looked onwards from her room, interested in seeing what would happen.

"Let me help you with this," said Leeto as he stood and re-adjusted the shelf so it was straight again,

"You should put something big on the end so all the stuff doesn't slide off again."

Keana suddenly sprang to his feet and quickly rummaged through a small box, "will this do?" he asked as he held out what looked to be an old filter mechanism, "th-that was the part tha-that caused my parent's death." He said as he hung his head.

Out of nowhere Leyla seemed to appear at the doorway, "you should be proud of them, if they hadn't changed the filter half the fleet would be starving." Keana seemingly looked up at Leyla and nodded slowly.

"Th-thank you for helping me fix the shelf." Keana said as he edged himself into the corner of his cubicle.

Leyla pulled at Leeto's elbow and gestured for him to leave. "Come on, were going to drop from FTL travel in about an hour, he needs some time to himself." She said as they walked down the hall towards the cockpit.


End file.
